Speakers

Coming Soon

Aaron Boyd is an award-winning journalist currently serving as senior editor for technology and events at Nextgov. He primarily covers federal government IT contracting and cybersecurity issues affecting both civilian and defense agencies. As a lifelong nerd and policy wonk, he feels right at home covering the intersection of technology and policy in the nation's capital. For more information, please click here. 

Tracy is an expert-level Technical Consultant with advanced level proficiency in Information Technologies infrastructure design/management coupled with intimate knowledge of Service Provider and Enterprise Networking, Data Center Architecture, and Security/Routing/Switching technologies. Collaborative and engaging presenter, successfully supporting multi-million dollar product and services sales through demonstration and technical support.

Tom Grimes is a Cyber Security Specialist for Infoblox. Tom brings over 25 years of
networking and security experience. Previously, Tom has worked as a
networking/security specialist for Cisco, Proofpoint, Carbon Black and Forsythe. Tom is
currently finishing up his Masters in Cybersecurity with a concentration in Malware Analysis. With over 25 years of experience in developing security solutions for Service Providers, Public Sector and Enterprise customers, Tom helps customers not only understand the technical, but also the business impacts of cyber-attacks and how to help mitigate those threats, specifically with a focus on DNS.

Wallace Sann is a global technology strategist and thought leader offering 20+ years of executive management experience aligning business structure and strategy with customer needs. Mr. Sann is the SVP of Technical Operations at iboss, where he is a trusted advisor for the global go-to-market initiatives and leads several strategic partnerships and OEMs. 

Mr. Sann is committed, analytical, and hands-on with a proactive leadership philosophy that inspires the team and personal career growth. Active panel participant and speaker for international cybersecurity fellowships and conferences. Military veteran, U.S. Marines.

Amber Winthers is an IT Cybersecurity Analyst for the Arapahoe County Government. Amber has received her Bachelor of Science in Business Technology, Marketing, and Business Management, as well as, her Masters of Science in Information Assurance and Computer Security, and multiple certifications including the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM). Over the last seven years, Amber has provided cybersecurity expertise to a number of financial institutions, healthcare facilities, the federal government, NASA, and local governments. Her passion resides in empowering individuals to better protect the organization, prepare for cybersecurity threats, and create/manage ‘people-centric’ Information Security Programs.

Andrew Lohn is a Senior Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), where he works on the CyberAI Project. Prior to joining CSET, he was an Information Scientist at the RAND Corporation, where he led research focusing mainly on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Prior to RAND, Andrew worked in material science and nanotechnology at Sandia National Laboratories, NASA, Hewlett Packard Labs, and a few startup companies. He has published in a variety of fields and his work has been covered in MIT Technology Review, Gizmodo, Foreign Policy and BBC. He has a PhD in electrical engineering from UC Santa Cruz and a Bachelors in Engineering from McMaster University.

Bill Lucia is a senior editor for Government Executive's Route Fifty. He previously covered Seattle city government for Crosscut.com and holds a master's in public administration from the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs.

Ryan Ettl is a 20-year veteran of the Sacramento IT community.  Over the course of his career, Ryan has held multiple security certifications including GSEC, GCIA, CISSP and has been invited to speak on the subject of DNS\DHCP\IPAM and cyber security at various conferences and associations such as ISSA (the Information Systems Security Association). Starting his career in Network Security Operations and progressing to Solution Architect, Ryan has extensive experience defending against cyber threats from both engineering and operational perspectives.  Currently a Customer Solutions Architect with Infoblox Public Sector, Ryan for the past several years has helped State, Local, and Education (SLED) agencies improve their security posture to gain operational efficiencies and business productivity.

Senior technical sales leader with a proven track record of creating and executing winning strategic sales strategies across Fortune 2000 and federal government accounts. Strong team leadership capabilities and extensive background with building and leading sales engineering (pre-sales) teams across large technology companies as well as startups.

Dynamic presenter with substantial hands-on experience in various infrastructure (e.g. virtualization, containers, cloud) and application technologies (e.g. PaaS, Java, Python, .NET). Extensive background in selling, architecting, and implementing numerous toolsets used by IT Operations staff (NetOps, SecOps, DevOps).

An outside-the-box thinker with the ability to adapt and drive value throughout the entirety of the sales cycle.

Learn more HERE.

Nick Marinos is a Director in GAO’s Information Technology and Cybersecurity team. He leads audit teams that perform government-wide and agency-specific reviews in the areas of cybersecurity, critical infrastructure, privacy, and data protection across all major federal agencies. Nick also leads GAO’s ongoing evaluation of the Census Bureau’s efforts to implement and protect IT systems critical to the 2020 Census.

Nick joined GAO in 2002. During his career at GAO, Nick has led major reviews of:

• Efforts by the executive branch to implement the National Cyber Strategy
• Cybersecurity risk management practices at major federal agencies
• Data protection practices at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Federal Student Aid office
• The response by Equifax and federal agencies to the 2017 data breach
• Cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, including within the financial services sector, the nation’s electricity grid, and oil and gas pipeline sectors

Nick earned an MBA in information systems and technology and a bachelor’s degree in business information technology, both from Virginia Tech. He serves on the Virginia Tech MBA and BIT advisory boards at the Pamplin College of Business. As one of GAO’s leading experts, Nick is also frequently invited to speak on a range of cybersecurity topics. Nick is a certified information privacy professional.

Frank Konkel is Nextgov’s executive editor. He writes about the intersection of government and technology. Frank began covering tech in 2013 upon moving to the Washington, D.C. area after getting his start in journalism working at local and state issues at daily newspapers in his home state of Michigan. Frank was born and raised on a dairy farm and graduated from Michigan State University.

Billy Rusk is the Manager of Solutions Architects at Infoblox where he leads the technical design and support for the Federal team.  With over 15 years of experience in developing secure networking solutions for all levels of Government customers, from local municipalities and counties to the DoD and Civilian agencies, Billy helps customers not only understand the technical, but also the business impacts of cyber-attacks and how to help mitigate those threats, specifically with a focus on DNS and cloud security.

Learn more at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-swift-672a1a28

James is a veteran security professional with Gigamon and has worked with some of the largest companies pre and post breach. He has provided guidance to organizations on methods to build out secure Access and Visibility plans during these times of consistently evolving network and security landscapes. As a Field CTO at RSA Security James spent his time speaking to executives about building a mature cybersecurity posture and what it takes to achieve usability and compliance. James is a standing member of the High Tech Criminal Investigations Association and volunteers with police investigations in high tech crimes.

Forrest Senti, Vice President of Programs and Operations, National Cybersecurity Center

Lester Godsey is the Chief Information Security Officer for Maricopa County, leading all cybersecurity and data privacy efforts for the organization. Prior to Maricopa County, Lester was the CISO/CPO for the City of Mesa, AZ. With over 25 years of higher education and local government IT experience, Lester has spoken at local, state and national conferences on topics ranging from telecommunications to project management to cybersecurity and data. Lester has taught at the collegiate level for over 12 years in the areas of technology, business and project management. The author of numerous trade journal and online magazine articles, he is CISM (Certified Information Security Manager) and PMP (Project Management Professional) certified. He holds a BA in Music and a MS in Technology, both from Arizona State University. 

Mariam Baksh reports on the development of federal cybersecurity policy for Nextgov. She started covering technology governance in 2014, during the heat of the Net Neutrality debate, and focused her graduate studies at American University on investigative journalism.

With over 17 years in the Information Technology industry, David has spent the last six years with Forescout helping to develop cybersecurity solutions for the Department of Defense (DoD). He has been instrumental in helping the United States Marine Corps (USMC) develop the Network Access Control, Compliance, and Remediation (NACCR) program, as well as assisting the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) in creating, defining, and implementing the Comply to Connect (C2C) program. Before joining Forescout, David was a member of the USMC White Team instituting Command Cyber Readiness Inspections (CCRI’s) to the various USMC Commands. He also spent 9 years in the Marine Corps as an Information Assurance and Cybersecurity specialist with multiple deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Learn more HERE.

Learn more at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turmel/

Deborah (Debbi) Blyth became the state’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in August 2014, bringing a diverse background to the position that includes 14 years of information security experience. As CISO, she serves as the point of contact for all information security initiatives in Colorado. This includes informing the chief information officer and executive agency leadership on security risks and impacts of policy and management decisions on IT-related initiatives. She and her team are responsible for determining the strategic and tactical security direction for the State to meet established objectives. 

Debbi brings a highly praised leadership style, which includes a desire for building collaborative working relationships. Before joining OIT, Debbi spent five years as an executive director at TeleTech leading their Information Security and IT Compliance program. Among her many achievements, Debbi built the business case for the information security program and led a two-year effort to evolve and mature it. 

As the Information Technology Security and Compliance Manager at Travelport, Debbi was responsible for establishing and managing a global enterprise information security and compliance program. During her tenure there, Debbi led the 2007 successful effort to achieve compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for the first time in the company’s history.

Debbi earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Regis University, graduating Summa Cum Laude while working full time. Calling herself a native even though she wasn’t born in Colorado, she loves all things Colorado, including the mountains, the sports teams, the weather, and especially the people! She is truly passionate about information security and is very enthusiastic about performing her career ‘calling’ in service to the residents of the state.

Maria Thompson joined the N.C. Department of Information Technology in January 2015 as the state’s first chief risk officer, reporting to the state chief information officer. This position was established as part of the state’s efforts to bring information risk management capabilities in line with industry standards.

In her role, Thompson is responsible for developing an integrated statewide framework to manage information risk, including operations, security and data protection.

She comes to NCDIT with decades of IT security experience. She began her career with 20 years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps and retired as the cybersecurity chief for the Marine Corps. Her previous roles include serving as the Iraq Theater of Operations Certification Authority. She also served as a senior security engineer for SecureInfo and senior security architect and program manager for Imperatis Corp. in Virginia. 

Thompson holds a Master of Science in information technology from the University of Maryland, University College - Adelphi.

Alisha Powell Gillis is the senior editor at Route Fifty where she is responsible for programming live and online events content, moderating panel discussions, soliciting, editing and writing analytical pieces and overseeing the annual Navigator Awards program. Before joining Route Fifty, Alisha was the director for community impact at the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) where she worked to connect urban public libraries to critical issues in state and local government and led event programming. Prior to ULC, Alisha served the nation's governors for nearly a decade at the National Governors Association where she specialized in homeland security, emergency management and cybersecurity issues. Alisha holds a master's degree in global security studies from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor's degree in political science from Hofstra University.

Chris Jensen is Tenable's Federal Business Development and Capture Manager, responsible for supporting Tenable sales across the U.S. government, and focused on enhancing understanding of Tenable technology as a necessary foundational platform for future cybersecurity solutions. Chris has nearly 25 years of experience in the federal contracting arena, with a deep understanding of federal acquisition processes and the surrounding regulatory environment. As a senior program director at an IT services company for the past 10 years, he won and managed programs to deliver and integrate technology solutions for federal agencies.

Allen McNaughton is the Director of Pre-Sales Engineering, Public Sector at Infoblox and leads the technical design and support for Federal, State/Local agencies and the Education vertical. He is also responsible for ensuring that Infoblox maintains the highest level of government certifications across product lines.  With over 20 years of experience in developing security solutions for Service Providers, Public Sector and Enterprise customers, Allen helps customers not only understand the technical, but also the business impacts of cyber-attacks and how to help mitigate those threats, specifically with a focus on DNS.

   Anna Pettyjohn, SVP, Events, GovExec

André V. Mendes, Chief Information Officer, Department of Commerce

Sean Connelly Trusted Internet Connections Program Manager, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Sean Connelly serves as the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Program Manager at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In this role, he leads the TIC Program Management Office, which is responsible for leading the Office of Management and Budget’s TIC initiative within CISA. The TIC initiative is the federal government’s strategy to securely protect government networks that connect to the Internet and cloud providers. CISA’s TIC Program Office works with a wide-spectrum of partners across government and industry and leads the way at enhancing network security across the federal enterprise horizon. Mr. Connelly joined DHS in 2013 and has served in a variety of roles, including the development of TIC 1, 2 and 3, along with the deployment of CISA’s sensor capabilities (operationally known as EINSTEIN 3A), and was part of the initial architectural team that stood-up the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program. Additionally, Mr. Connelly was a lead author on the ‘IT Modernization Report to the President’ in 2017, as well as a co-author of NIST’s Special Publicization towards ‘Zero Trust Architectures’ in 2019. Prior to joining the federal civilian service, Mr. Connelly worked as a consultant to the Department of State, where he led architectural initiatives within the department, including the adoption of TIC 1 and TIC 2, as well as the design of the State Department’s next-generation telecommunications platform, providing IT for a global workforce. Overall, Mr. Connelly has over 15 years of experience in the federal domain, and over 20 years of experience in the IT and cybersecurity domain. Mr. Connelly earned a MS in Information Technology Management from George Washington University, and holds two Cisco Certified Information Expert (CCIE) certifications. Mr. Connelly holds the first CCIE in Routing, and a second CCIE in Security.

Aaron Boyd is an award-winning journalist currently serving as senior editor for technology and events at Nextgov. He primarily covers federal government IT contracting and cybersecurity issues affecting both civilian and defense agencies. As a lifelong nerd and policy wonk, he feels right at home covering the intersection of technology and policy in the nation's capital. For more information, please click here. 

Allen McNaughton is the Director of Pre-Sales Engineering, Public Sector at Infoblox and leads the technical design and support for Federal, State/Local agencies and the Education vertical. He is also responsible for ensuring that Infoblox maintains the highest level of government certifications across product lines.  With over 20 years of experience in developing security solutions for Service Providers, Public Sector and Enterprise customers, Allen helps customers not only understand the technical, but also the business impacts of cyber-attacks and how to help mitigate those threats, specifically with a focus on DNS.

Dennis Reilly has been a Vice President at Gigamon for over nine years, leading
the group to 43% compounded annual growth and a 58% market share in the
network visibility and analytics space. With over 30 years of technology and
business experience, Mr. Reilly is a strong advocate for the Federal, State and
local governments and educational institutions applying information technology to
strengthen security and improve innovation and productivity. He has supported
government agencies in Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program
initiatives and implementations for 7 years.

Prior to joining Gigamon, Dennis held sales leadership positions at companies
such as Oracle, Netscape, BEA, and Plumtree Software. Earlier in his career,
Mr. Reilly served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and earned his Bachelor’s degree
at the United States Naval Academy and has a Master’s degree in business from
Boston University.

Dennis resides in northern Virginia with his wife and has four adult children.

Lisa Lorenzin is the Senior Director of Transformation Strategy at Zscaler, specializing in secure application access and digital transformation. For more than 25 years, she has worked in a variety of network and information security roles and has contributed to open standards for endpoint integrity and network security from the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Lisa’s current focus is on helping customers achieve their security goals and create a seamless user experience across cloud and mobile environments through the use of cloud-delivered zero trust access  solutions.

Learn more HERE. 

Bill Lucia is a senior editor for Government Executive's Route Fifty. He previously covered Seattle city government for Crosscut.com and holds a master's in public administration from the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs.

Felipe Fernandez is the Senior Director of Systems Engineering at Fortinet Federal, a U.S. next-generation cyber security solution vendor that provides real-time threat detection and prevention. In addition to his role as a team manager, Felipe also oversees the US Federal product strategy and certification process at Fortinet, such as the DoDIN APL and NSACSfC. Felipe has over 21 years of experience in consulting, deploying, operating, and auditing security solutions in DoD and the private sector. 

Allen McNaughton is the Director of Pre-Sales Engineering, Public Sector at Infoblox and leads the technical design and support for Federal, State/Local agencies and the Education vertical. He is also responsible for ensuring that Infoblox maintains the highest level of government certifications across product lines.  With over 20 years of experience in developing security solutions for Service Providers, Public Sector and Enterprise customers, Allen helps customers not only understand the technical, but also the business impacts of cyber-attacks and how to help mitigate those threats, specifically with a focus on DNS.

Brandon Shopp has been our Group Vice President of Product since February 2018. He served as our Director of Product Management since November 2011, assuming the title and responsibilities of Senior Director of Product Management in July 2013. Previously, Shopp was the Vice President of Product Management at AlienVault, from August 2016 until February 2018 and the Senior Director of Products at Embarcadero Technologies, from July 2015 until August 2016. Shopp has a proven success record in product delivery and revenue growth, with a wide variety of software product, business model, M&A, and go-to-market strategies experience. Shopp holds a B.B.A. from Texas A&M University.

Michael Anderson, Chief Information Security Officer, Dallas County, Texas

Shane Barney, Chief Information Security Officer, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Mariam Baksh reports on the development of federal cybersecurity policy for Nextgov. She started covering technology governance in 2014, during the heat of the Net Neutrality debate, and focused her graduate studies at American University on investigative journalism.

Allen McNaughton is the Director of Pre-Sales Engineering, Public Sector at Infoblox and leads the technical design and support for Federal, State/Local agencies and the Education vertical. He is also responsible for ensuring that Infoblox maintains the highest level of government certifications across product lines.  With over 20 years of experience in developing security solutions for Service Providers, Public Sector and Enterprise customers, Allen helps customers not only understand the technical, but also the business impacts of cyber-attacks and how to help mitigate those threats, specifically with a focus on DNS.

Randy Watkins is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for CRITICALSTART and an emerging thought-leader in the security industry. As CTO, Randy is responsible for designing and executing the company’s strategic technology initiatives, which includes defining the strategy and direction of CRITICALSTART’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services delivered by the Zero-Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP).

Previously, Randy served as CRITICALSTART’s Director of Security Architecture, where he set the strategy for emerging vendor technologies, created the Defendable Network reference architecture, and set product direction for the company’s internally-developed Security Orchestration Automation and Response platform. Watkins was employee number five when he joined CRITICALSTART in 2012.

Randy is a respected author and speaker on security trends and is well-versed in applying security technologies, in practical and meaningful ways, to improve risk management and security infrastructure for enterprise customers. He holds numerous security certifications in data analysis, data science, computer science, and leadership. Randy earned a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems Security and an associate degree in Computer Networking Systems, both from ITT Technical Institute.

In his free time, Randy continues to contribute to the security community through his consultancy to security product manufacturers to help them drive value to the customer through their solutions.

   Anna Pettyjohn, SVP, Events, GovExec